The convergent communications revolution is not over and we need a new digital media vision to guide us into the future. That was the conclusion of a keynote speech from the new chief executive of the communications regulator in the United Kingdom. Ed Richards took the opportunity of the Oxford Media Convention to trail proposals for his pet project, the creation of a Public Service Publisher.
The convergent communications revolution is not over and we need a new digital media vision to guide us into the future. That was the conclusion of a keynote speech from the new chief executive of the communications regulator in the United Kingdom. Ed Richards took the opportunity of the Oxford Media Convention to trail proposals for his pet project, the creation of a Public Service Publisher.
Ed Richards was appointed chief executive of Ofcom in October 2006, having been its chief operating officer. He was previously a policy advisor to the prime minister and a former controller of corporate strategy at the BBC.
He described the recent settlement of the television licence fee as a watershed and called for a re-assessment of the vision which led to the 2003 Communications Act and the creation of Ofcom as a unified communications regulator.
“It’s easy to assume that the arguments about converged digital media are now all over bar the shouting, but believe me, they’re not,” he said. “It is tempting to declare victory in the communications revolution and move on.” He suggested that the work was “not so much half done as probably never likely to be completed”.
His four themes were the consumer demand for greater control, mobility, participation, and the inevitable disruption that all this will create.
He described technologies and services exemplified by digital video recorders and broadband on-demand services as a new wave of viewer control. He said that the consumer also wants mobility of services on an unprecedented scale, enabled by a combination of storage and wireless distribution. Viewers and consumers are no longer largely passive recipients of media. They want to be part of the story. “This will be a period of opportunity but also of disruption,” he said, “as businesses strive to reinvent themselves for a new landscape.”
Disruption
This will disrupt the traditional model for the creation and distribution of public service content. Looking ahead to 2012, when digital switchover should be complete, he sought to sketch the outline of a vision for digital media.
This digital media vision will sit in a global context, as citizens and consumers increasingly browse around the world for their audio visual information and entertainment.
It will build on the current mixed economy, with the market providing much of what consumers want and need.
Any public intervention therefore needs to be transparent and accountable and be bounded both in the level of funding and by mechanisms which place limits on scope and expansion.
Original production and creativity will need to be at the heart of this digital vision and an approach will be required that is “accessible to all, plural in character, diverse in content and responsive to the audience need of this century, not the last”.
After 20 years of multi-channel television, he pointed out that public service broadcasters invest over two billion pounds a year in original production in the UK, compared to less than £100 million a year from other broadcasters.
“Our digital media vision of plurality and diversity will also need to be realistic about how the public service content of the future will be delivered — responsive to the audience’s needs, not of the twentieth century, but of the twenty first century.”
Public service provision would need to not only be original, innovative and of high quality, but also mobile, on-demand and participative. He said: “The delivery channels for public service content are going to change and if public service content is going to be made available to future generations, this means using the tools, the technology, the form and the culture of digital media”.
This does not simply mean a series of alternative distribution models for the same linear programming. He noted that user participation is “one defining quality that separates successful networked content from traditional broadcast media”. He said: “Rather than abandoning the concept of public service as the broadcast model changes, the shift to participative, interactive media offers us the opportunity to revitalise our idea of public service for new and active citizens and consumers, as well as the passive viewing which will remain attractive and valued”.
A discussion document is due to be published on the previously proposed Public Service Publisher model. It follows a forum commissioned by Ofcom to explore the opportunities of a new media entity.
Ed Richards suggested that it could spcialise in original, innovative, participative media. It could be a commissioner, but also potentially an aggregator of public service content, recognising consumers as users, creators and contributors and not just viewers.
“As an open media network focused on what can be achieved with the full range of new media rather than broadcasting, the PSP could be a bold approach to public service content delivery in the digital environment.”
Ofcom is apparently open minded about whether it should be a new institution, acknowledging that there are good arguments for attaching it to an existing organisation, presumably the BBC or possibly Channel 4.
On the other hand, the creation 25 years ago of Channel 4 as a separate institution, with its then innovative funding model based on a levy of the independent television companies that sold its airtime, led to the development of the independent production sector.
“We need similar imagination for our digital media vision for 2012,” said the Ofcom chief executive. “We need to be inspired by the legacy of British broadcasting in the last century, but we cannot afford to be trapped or constrained by its history and its conventions.”
While the BBC comes to terms with a below inflation increase in its funding from the television licence, and Channel 4 adjusts to its own commercial reality, Ofcom appears keen to encourage a new force in competition and innovation to stimulate public service production in the age of digital distribution.
Ed Richards, the chief executive of Ofcom, delivered the keynote speech at the Institute for Public Policy Research Media Convention in Oxford on 18 January 2007.